Bane Of My Existence
by Azami-Thistle
Summary: AU Highschool fic. Kai loves to torture Azami. Azami swears she hates Kai. Nobody's convinced. Kai0C, TalaOC
1. Chapter 1

Hello, this is the introduction to my new story. If it sounds familiar that's because I wrote a story like this a few years ago under a different pen name. Long story but I had to abandon it. If you liked that you'll probably like this too. Anyway, read and review!

* * *

My name is Azami. Azami Tokyo.

Today is my first day back at school. As usual I'm late.

My normal routine goes something like this: wake up. Go back to sleep. Ignore the alarm. Wake up again. Look at the alarm. See that school has already started. Scream. Jump out of bed. Have a shower and brush my teeth at the same time. Throw on whatever I can find, odd socks included. Put my black hair into messy buns as I run down the stairs using whatever I can find to keep them in place. This time it's pencils. Grab my bag. Grab the bagel my mother thrusts at me as I run out the door.

I run for one block. Remember I hate physical exertion. Collapse. Walk very slowly for the rest of the way. By the time, I get to school I'm twenty five minutes late. This is practically early for me. I'm nearly proud of myself.

I run into my homeroom and take my seat.

I know the jerk is staring at me. I know he is smirking at me with his damn know it all sneer. I turn around and practically scream at him, 'WHAT?' The boy rubs me up constantly all the time.

Hiwitari stares at me for several seconds, an innocent look plastered across his face. Then he looks away, he turns back still looking as if butter wouldn't melt. Yeah right. I've never known anyone less innocent in all my life. He leans forward. 'It's just that' he glances around again, 'you're not in this class'

I freeze. I glance around. Everyone is staring at me, confused, there are some cheerleaders, Mai's groupies no doubt, tittering at me. The teacher, I don't even know his name, is staring questioningly. I sit frozen for another few seconds.

Then I get up and run for my life. Hiwitari's amused expression stuck in my mind. He'll never let me live this down.

I HATE that boy. I really do.

I do manage to find my way to my own homeroom. I slip in, now thirty five minutes late. Still, it's better than my average. Ms Richardson doesn't even say anything. I suppose they've learnt to just block it out. What else can they do, aside from making me live at the school.

There's only one seat left, and I frown when I see who it's next to. But he grins at me forever, unfazed. Tala Volkov. One of the most popular, and therefore rich as these things go hand in hand round here, guys at our school. He also happens to be the best friend of Kai 'the bane of my existence' Hiwitari.

I sit next to him begrudgingly. 'Early as usual Az' he grins at me. He's never put off by my attitude.

'So' Tala begins casually, too casual, 'Where's Mads?'

I roll my eyes. How predictable. Mads is Madoka. Although if you call her by her full name, you probably don't want to live a long and healthy life.

Mads is my best friend. She has been since we were eight. She is also the girl Tala has been chasing since he realised girls were more than boys without penises. Then there's the twin sister, Nami who could not be more different from her sister if she tried. Most horrifyingly of all as far as I'm concerned, Mads is the cousin of Kai 'the bane of my existence' Hiwitari.

I told you it was a small town.

First days back are always lame. Each subject feels the need to go through, the dos and don'ts again, as if in the last two months we've forgotten all common sense. I have long since come up with a system of naps and toilet breaks to deal with days like this. The morning passes like so; in Science, thankfully a Shark free class, I have a refreshing nap. By nap I mean I sleep through the whole lesson until my snoring reaches the teacher and he tells me in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of his class. And by Sharks I mean a member of the school's elite little gang. Johnny, Bryan, Tala and of course their leader, Kai. My next subject is Maths. Maths is a no-go zone for me. We're in ability groups. I'm in the thick one. They don't call us that, but I'm well aware that half of us can barely do our times tables. I'm in that half by the way. Mariah is with me at least. Tyson too, but that's not a benefit to be honest.

Then it is mercifully break time. I run to the same spot, my friends always congregate at. Our bench. Everyone is already there. I throw myself at each one of them, in a big hug. Well except for Mads. She is not big on hugging or any physical contact really. Ray, Mariah, Max, Tyson, Lee, Mads. I have a huge rush of affection for them all.

She's sitting on the bench in the middle, but seems somehow distanced from everyone else. A conversation is playing out, something about what a pig Tyson is, while he whines and protests. It's a conversation topic I would usually join in with relish but I carry on watching Mads instead.

I've always been jealous of Mads hair. She has this incredibly dark blue hair. But when it catches the light it's a deep sapphire blue. Her eyes are green. Not emerald green like mine, but a dark almost hazel colour. I follow her gaze, and I'm surprised to see it lands on her sister. Nami, is unmistakeably Mads sister in looks. The same shaped face, willowy figure, the same nose, the same mouth and cheekbones. But as Mads hair is a dark blue, Nami's hair is the lightest shade of blue imaginable, almost silver. Her eyes are a sea green colour with flecks of blue. They're also unmistakeably from Hiwitari stock. The kind of beauty that turns heads and transfixes people. Almost sucking the air out of a room when they enter like some sort of supernatural species. Not that Kai Hiwitari was attractive or anything. Not at all really,

I shrug off such disturbing thoughts, and try and catch Mads attention, but before I can, Tala has joined them and Mads attention immediately shifts.

'Hey' Tala says them all in an offhand voice, as if he usually approached them out of the blue.

'What are you doing with us civilians?' Ray comments but his tone of voice is more bemused then cold.

Tala smiles, 'Oh you know, thought I'd just come and say hey'

Mads frowned, 'Well you've said it' she responded, sounding bored.

Tala smiled at her but made no effort to leave. You had to smile at his persistence.

'So, where's Kai?' I ask, breaking the silence.

'Why do you care' Tala responded at once, although he didn't take his eyes off Mads who was staring determinedly into the distance.

'I don't' I splutter, 'like I care where that arrogant pig headed-'

Tyson interrupts me. 'Don't you like Kai, Az?'

Along with everyone else, I stare at Tyson a little dumbfounded. Not even he was this dense.

Max laughed, 'Are you serious, Ty? Az spends most of her time reminding us she hates Kai'

Tyson shrugs unperturbed. 'I always thought Azami and Kai had a thing for each'

I froze. Wait? What? What was he about to say? But before he finished his sentence, Mariah made a random high pitched squealing sound. I turned to look at her sourly, as she flushed a deep pink to match her hair. I also couldn't help but notice the matching smirks on both Tala and Mads faces.

Tala turned to look at me, answering my earlier question, and relieving the awkward tension. 'Kai's away somewhere, with his girlfriend'.

Did I not mention Hiwitari's girlfriend? Mai. The school's head cheerleader. Cheerleader captain or whatever you called them. The biggest bitch at this school. And there were a lot of bitches around here. She also happens to be Nami's best friend. She's been dating Hiwitari for a month apparently. In Hiwitari dating land, they were practically married.

'Well, I had better go' Tala began, 'The girlfriend has probably gone to practice making letters with her arms or something'. Even Tala didn't like the cow, and Tala liked all girls.

Before he left, he looked straight at Mads. 'So about our date tonight' he stopped for effect and everyone gaped at him except Mads who stared at him coolly, 'What time should I pick you up'

Mads didn't skip a beat, 'A quarter to never?' she responded coolly.

He smirked, 'Maybe next time then' he replied brightly, and walked away with a casual wave.

'I'm pretty sure I'll be busy watching paint dry' Mads responded, and looked around daring any of them to say anything. Mariah closed her mouth hurriedly.

Then the bell went, and it was time for the torture to continue.

As I walked back to the building, I saw Tala catch up to Kai. I directed a glance at Hiwitari's back that can only be termed as one of pure loathing. He must have sensed me or something because he turned and waved at me cheerily. I gave him one of Mads patented death glares. Unfazed he turned to Tala and after a few moments they were chuckling together. They were such wankers.

That afternoon I was the second person into History. Incredible I know. Mads was already sitting down, staring out of the window serenely. I made a bee line for her, when someone grabbed my arm. I whirled around.

'What are you doing?' I hissed. Hiwitari ignored me, but he didn't let go of my arm.

What was his game, Mads seemed to be wondering the same thing, she raised an eyebrow at him. Kai just grinned.

Then the question was answered as Tala bounded in and sat down next to Mads. She looked at him, and then back at Kai. I nearly chuckled, Kai was gonna get it later. There weren't any other spare seats.

'The witch is sitting with me today' Hiwitari commented still gripping my arm. Witch? That was just one of his many nicknames for me. That's the problem with having jet black hair and emerald green eyes. That and the Harry Potter jokes. Right that was it. I did the first thing that popped into my head, which is the story of my life really. I bit him. Hard.

He exhaled sharply, and then shouted, swearing profusely. Served him right.

That was when the teacher walked in of course.

We were herded to the Principal's office. As we left the classroom, Tala was still laughing hysterically. Then I heard a yelp. I grinned. Mads so punched him.

Hiwitari and I had to sit side by side outside the office. I looked at him slyly out the corner of my eyes. You could see my teeth marks on his arm. I grinned.

So that's how I ended up in detention for two weeks. Even worse was when Mariah asked me in all earnestness whether I had really gotten a detention for giving Kai a love bite in class. That put killing Mads on the to do list.

Of course, as my traitorous best friend told me much later in an oh so comforting voice, at least I would have company.

Oh yeah Principal Turner wasn't exactly thrilled when Kai announced seriously that the massive bite on his arm at least proved that I wasn't a witch at all but rather a bitch.

Two weeks of detention with Kai Hiwitari.

How am I going to survive?

Part two coming soon.


	2. Art imitates life

There are a few problems with being best friends with your worst enemy's cousin.

That was the topic Azami reflected on as she sat in art class while said best friend and said enemy flicked elastic bands at her. Talk about betrayal.

_Ping_! 'OWWW' she shouted, as something hit her square in the back. She whirled around. Mads and Kai were both apparently intent upon their work. They looked up simultaneously, with matching innocent expressions. She was going to kill them both.

'Is there a problem Azami?'

Azami looked up at her teacher, whose name she couldn't remember. Azami often went through whole school years not having learnt the names of her teachers and the vast majority of her classmates. She had a mind like a sieve.

'Yes...Mr..Sir...' Azami said, she threw a glare Kai's way, 'someone is flicking things at me'

Kai looked up from his work, and then looked around the room with a stern expression on his face, like_ he_ was trying to find the culprit. What a cheek! Azami glared at him harder and Mads persistent cough sounded awfully like a disguised snigger.

Azami got back to work after a few more minutes of protesting at her teacher who obviously thought she was pretending. She would have argued the issue but she had a feeling she would have just found herself hauled up in front of the school counsellor for 'disruptive' tendencies.

She got back to work and then it happened again, two minutes later. Except this time, the elastic band hit her right in the back of her head.

She turned around, this time he didn't even bother to pretend. He mouthed something at her, smirked and looked back at his work.

BULLSEYE. That's what he mouthed at her. Azami could almost feel her blood boil. This meant war.

She got up, with the pretence of fetching a new paint brush and stalked across the room to where Kai and Mads were sat talking to each other. In Russian. Oh that was another charming family trait. Whenever they wanted to talk about something private, often from other sides of the room, they would just slip into their mother tongue. It was irritating to say the least. Especially when Kai developed the habit of smirking at her every time there was a pause in dialogue. Azami would totally learn Russian if it wasn't for the fact that after four years of French she hadn't got beyond 'My name is...'

'Uh hum' Azami cleared her throat. They stopped their conversation and turned to look at her. As if they didn't already know she was there. She glowered at them.

'Can we help you?' Kai asked with every semblance of politeness except for that damn smirk.

'I thought you might like these back' she threw the elastic bands down onto his desk.

'And' Azami carried on, turning to look at her best friend, 'Why are you taking his side?'

'Side?' they did that damn simultaneous thing again.

'Yes, you're flicking things at me' Azami hissed at him, and then turned on Mads, 'and you're letting him'

'Are you flicking things at her Kai?' Mads turned on him, in outrage.

'Well of course not' Kai replied shocked, 'Are you?'

That was it.

Azami lost it. She flipped.

'You threw a bowl of paint over your teacher?'

'No...' Azami started, 'Well, it was a bowl of water mixed with paint'

Mariah sat down. She felt faint.

Stupid Kai. Stupid, stupid Kai. He moved out of the way at the last moment. And, splash, it went all over Mr Art Teacher Man.

It had been awful. Azami hadn't been shouted at so much since...well since the last time she tried to best Hiwatari. He was always one step ahead of her, or three or four.

Then a new voice joined the din. She swore that people in this school had radar for any new gossip or scandal. 'Is it really true that you punched Mr Wright?'

Azami fell off her chair. 'WHAT!? Tala where the hell did you get that from?'

Tala shrugged, 'Everyone's talking about it'

'HIWATARI!'

So that was how it was for the rest of the day. Just about everyone Azami knew, even the sane reasonable people like Ray and Max, approached her to ask her whether or not it was true that she'd assaulted Mr Wright. Her previous notoriety among her fellow students had been related to her aptness for turning up to the wrong classes with odd shoes.

However this cloud did have a silver lining. She had heard so many people say 'Yeah that crazy Tokyo chick attacked Mr Wright in class!' she was never ever going to forget her art teacher's name again. What a comfort.

So now she had detention after school in the art department, clearing up paint and sorting out materials and whatever. Just great. Not to mention the detentions she hadn't finished yet for the previous misdemeanour. She was double booked for detentions. That was pretty shameful.

That's why she could be found after school getting her hands dirty trying to wash dried up paint off hundreds of paintbrushes. The art rooms usually the busiest place in school was completely empty after school.

And Azami was BORED, so very bored.

She was never good at tidying up. It was a well known fact that you entered Azami Tokyo's room at your peril. There was a foot layer of rubbish in there. You literally couldn't see the floor for junk.

She was still bent over the sink, futilely trying to wash up when she heard the door open behind her.

'Yeah I know I'm not even half way finished' she muttered knowing it was going to be a glowering Mr Wright, see she did learn his name, come to check on her.

Nobody answered so she turned around.

It was Kai. A very alone Kai. With none of his groupie or followers or minions. Not even Tala.

'What do you want?' she snapped at him sullenly crossing her arms.

He looked at her for a moment and sighed. He walked past her to the sink. She watched as he rolled up his sleeves. He turned and smirked at her, as she carried in gaping at him.

'What are you doing?' she asked slowly.

He smirked at her, 'Washing up. What are you doing?'

She frowned at him 'Why are you helping me?'

'Who said I'm helping you' he replied without glancing at her, 'I always stay behind after school to help out'

She couldn't help but grin at him, 'Oh because you're a model student'

He passed her a paintbrush to dry, and grinned 'Well you said it'

They entered into a little routine where he would wash the palettes and brushes and she would dry them. It was actually kind of comfortable. Kind of nice, Azami thought. Not that she would ever, ever admit it.

'Thanks' Azami muttered eventually breaking the silence.

'What?' Kai turned to her, a frown fixed on her face.

'Thank you' Azami murmured again, this time a little louder.

Kai continued to frown at her, she started to wonder if she was doing that thing where she thought she was saying something out loud but it was just her own thoughts. That happened nearly as often as the times when she said her random thoughts aloud _without_ thinking.

'Seriously, I don't know what you're saying' he replied quietly, leaning in closer.

'Thank you' she repeated herself again, practically shouted at him.

He smirked at her, 'You're welcome' then he leaned forward whispering into her ear 'but I heard you the first time'

ARGH! He was the most annoying person ever. One minute he could do the most selfless, thoughtful things then the next he was back to his usual smug, self serving ways. She glared at him and marched to the other side of the room.

He could never just be nice. Everything had to come back to his love of annoying her. He was just so...frustrating!

And she was so busy thinking about that evil, evil boy, she didn't even notice when she bumped into a bottle of paint, precariously positioned at the edge of the worktop. Splash it went all over her sweater. It was just another thing. Another stressful event in another stressful day. It was just too much. If it wasn't for him standing there, she probably would have burst into tears.

'Don't even say anything' she snapped at him, he raised both his hands in an ironic gesture of peace.

She had to take her sweater off and wash the paint out while it was still wet. Azami had long since gotten used to her reputation among her friends, and the student population in general, as the klutz. The person who could be counted on to trip over her feet. Drop plates. Walk into doors. Fall down the stairs. Fall _up_ the stairs. She was a walking accident zone.

And it had to be this time, when she was in the room with her worst enemy that the bubblehead syndrome kicked in. It got worse. Of course it did. She was half out of her sweater when she realised she was stuck. She had gotten her head stuck in her own clothing. You wouldn't believe it, if you hadn't met Azami before. She was one of a kind.

She struggled for several second, well aware that Kai was probably sitting back watching her like she was great entertainment. Or worse he could be filming her on his phone. It'd be all round the school. Line up; line up, to see the girl who got stuck in her sweater! She could end up on Youtube. She wouldn't put it past him.

Suddenly, she felt his hands on her. 'Go away' she muttered but it was so muffled she was sure it came out more like 'Geray'.

'Do you wanna stay like this?' he asked her, a note of amusement in his voice she deeply resented. She shook her head, he couldn't see it but he probably got the message anyway.

He pulled the jumper up over her head and she inhaled deeply. She might have to add claustrophobia to her list of mental ticks. 'Hey' she squeaked randomly when she was free, suddenly aware of how close they were. 'Hey' he murmured back, his voice strangely deep, somehow more mature than usual. And Azami was sure they were much closer than before. She didn't remember moving closer towards him. That was strange.

'We leave them for half an hour and they're already taking each others clothes off'

Azami jumped back, hitting her elbow on a desk.

Mads, Nami and Mai were all stood in the doorway, with very different expressions plastered on their faces. Mads could only be described as looking as though she was the cat that had got the cream. It was her of course that had made the opening comment, mostly for Mai's benefit Azami surmised. Mai in fact looked like she was about to throttle someone, but she quickly covered it with a look of surprised concern. Nami just looked bored but that was one of her signature looks whenever she got in range of Azami anyway.

'I got paint on my sweater' Azami commented lamely.

Mads raised an eyebrow, in such a jauntily suggestive way as to make Azami's cheeks flush a deep crimson. Azami ran over to the sink just so that she wouldn't have to look at the Hiwatari and their varying smirking expressions, not to mention Mai's irritating beyond belief simper.

'You should really rinse that out quickly before it stains' Mai said in that faux sweet voice, somewhere behind her. Azami was pretty sure she heard Mads snort disparagingly. Azami mumbled something that was meant to be a thank you.

It was Nami who spoke up next, interrupting the all too awkward silence that had emerged. 'Are you going to drive us home now?'

'Sure' Kai said, 'Let's go'. Azami still didn't turn around, although she could actually imagine their gazes burning into her back. The door closed unceremoniously with only Kai's small 'bye' as they all left.

Azami turned around. Or rather not all of them had left. 'What are you still doing here?'

Mads smirked, 'You think I'd leave with them? Because I really want to spend twenty minutes listening to the gruesome twosome babble on about Justin Timberlake or hair bands or whatever else cheerleaders talk about?'

Azami smiled semi cheered up, 'And anyway' Mads continued, 'I have to drive you home don't I? We don't want a repeat of that infamous incident where you got lost in your own street'

'That only happened once' Azami protested, 'all the houses look the same after dark' she added sulkily.

'Come on' Mads grinned pulling her friend along, 'Now, you can give me a long blow by blow analysis of exactly what happened with you and Kai in detention'

Azami wilted, Mads was probably the only person in the whole world who could make 'blow by blow analyses sound dirty. Seriously.

This was the strangest day ever.


End file.
